Over the past couple of days, major American video game site IGN (owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, one of the largest in the world) has made known their intention to become heavily involved in competitive StarCraft 2.

Information has recently come to light to suggest that this will be a new professional StarCraft 2 league in North America, sponsored by IGN and boasting a prize pool between $150,000 and $200,000. This information comes from the mouth of an IGN employee and a credible source who wishes to remain anonymous at this time.

UPDATE 3: A post on IGN.com entitled "Announcing the IGN Proleague" has surfaced, apparently posted on March 20th, 2011 (it is easy to fake a blog post's date).

"IGN has invited 16 of the most talented Starcraft 2 players from North America, and will be launching a series of tournaments in search for the best players in America.

As the top gaming site on the internet, IGN is passionate about nurturing the gaming scene. We believe that the main reason why America is not yet competitive in the eSports scene is the lack of events and sponsorships to support America's talent. IGN will be investing in accelerating the growth of the eSport scene in America."

UPDATE 4: Gudeldar from Team Liquid has found a number of 'IPL' profiles for major gamers. This may very well be the full list of those participating.

Edward of Root Gaming, now an IGN employee in the new e-sports division, posted a series of pictures two days ago to start the hype. The pictures showed off a high end production facility, an employee holding a copy of StarCraft 2 and a number of the most well known players in the North American StarCraft scene.

There were other well known community members in attendance who were not caught on camera.

Evoli, the writer who helped break the story of the NASL by uncovering domain registration information, was invited to IGN’s offices to cover the event with the qualification that he had to play by their rules. He was and is not allowed to reveal the complete project but did reveal some information to us, information that we will review now.

On SixJaxGaming.com, Evoli wrote that the announcement was very much a venture of their own, backing up the signs pointing toward a new professional league in North America as opposed to anything to do with the NASL or another league. Evoli also noted that the venture was “big, very fucking big, and the plans they have for future projects are even bigger.” With hype like that, a league with a six figure prize pool (at least on par with the NASL) is to be expected.

Evoli also noted that the production facilities were “downright incredible.” Pictures showed major StarCraft 2 personalities being interviewed, perhaps echoing NASL’s wish to use interviews to build up the personalities in their league.

The exact format of the league is not known at this time. Signs are pointing to a team league because teams as opposed to individuals were contacted but this has not been confirmed by any sources. It is also been reported that there has been some friction between at least one member of Fnatic and at least one staffer at IGN but it was not possible to come by details or implications for the league.

More information will be posted about IGN's new venture as it can be reviewed.

It won't last. NASL will crumble under all it's bullshit(5 korean max rofl), the first few VC who toss $$$ at this game will receive zero payout and give up like they've done in the past. Yeah yeah yeah hundreds of thousands of people tune in to the GSL finals, but shit, Urkel reruns probably pull similar numbers.

It's sad but if Korea continues to rape in SC every other region will dry up. Which won't likely change unless European and NA culture suddenly changes and e-sports become TV viable and players get a decent salary that won't be totally worthless when they retire and realize they've wasted the best years of there life and are too old to do anything.

Like you, I am cynical and feel that the money doesn't just come from somewhere. Where is this 400,000 from NASL funded from? And this 200,000 from IGN? Coupled with the TEN MILLION from MLG. I am seriously baffled at how much money is being tossed around. Apparently MLG has corporate funding in the millions.

How are these investors going to make their money back? Perhaps exposure/advertising is worth more than we think. But think about it.. Isn't it also weird that korean cell phone providers are shelling out millions on e-sports? And it's obviously been working out for years now...

We can only hope that none of it ends up like CGS, I don't think eSports as we know it would take another hit like that. At least they are using the correct game this time around with Starcraft 2 instead of CS Source, which was for the most part shunned by the active community. But no matter what game you play, if you are a fan of eSports you should be sceptical but then also supportive of these new leagues, as that is the only chance they have to succeed.

I hope that ESL can step up their game a bit, because the games they are supporting at the moment just don't seem to be bringing in the numbers that the old events such as the CPL with CS 1.6 in 2003. I know, I hate using the CPL as an example nowadays because of everything that has gone on... but today's events seem rather small compared to the days of the CPL. By that I don't mean production wise, I think that ESL have got their production streamlined and perfected, they put on a good show and it is for the most part entertaining, however small 12 team tournaments don't quite feel as "epic", they don't have the drama and the upsets that we used to get in the larger tournaments. The stuff that used to keep me hooked!

Not too sure what games they could use, but at least I feel that the CS 1.6 community and pro scene for it isn't even a 1/4 of what it used to be... maybe its just PC gaming that is dying out for pro gaming FPS games. It's only really SC2 that is thriving.